U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said Wednesday that the Trump administration is seeking regular meetings with Chinese officials as part of any trade deal in order to ensure that Beijing is abiding by the terms of the agreement.
“The enforcement process will be very specific. It will have layers, it will have time frames, it will have reaction,” Lighthizer said in an appearance before the House Ways and Means Committee.
The monthly meetings would likely involve lower-level officials from both countries, and there would be quarterly ones and semiannual for higher-level officials.
Lighthizer said the problem was that China has in the past just disregarded promises it made.
“We have had many, many examples of the Chinese agreeing to take steps to forego certain unfair trade practices trade and in very few cases have they actually kept their obligations,” he said.
The White House is a trying to reach a broader trade deal with Beijing by next month. Trump will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping at Mar-A-Lago, Florida, next month for one-on-one talks.
The administration has claimed that it is making progress in the talks. President Trump announced on Sunday that administration was postponing a planned March increase in tariffs on Chinese goods due to the prospects for a deal. Lighthizer said that the administration would take steps to formally abandon the planned hike.
